Cowboys Victorious in JT's 300th

Neither side played that well, but I felt like right from the kick off the Cowboys were the better team. You're bringing refereeing decisions as the reason the Sharks lost but at end of the day the Cowboys were the better side. They scored four tries to two, and one the Sharks came off an intercept. Further Martin dropped a ball over the line and Taumalolo only just got held up. Full credit to Sharks for stopping those trys and staying in the game but the Cowboys deserved to win. Just on the refereeing, I actually think the NRL has done a good job in off season, cracking down on play the balls and players slowing down the ruck. In rugby league, more than any other sport, there seems be fans who blame referees and conspiracy theories when their team loses. Credit where it is due, play the ball were a farce last year and the NRL has made it clear they are going to crack down

Amen Brother If JVGO is reaching for the alfoil after round one, it's going to be a very long season for him.

You must’ve been one those “We was robbed” commenters from the last game we played against the sharks. Grow up, it’s beggars’ belief you’re doing it around cowboys’ fans, many of us are veterans of the tin-foil hat conspiracy. Last night was a good game for round 1 where two of the better teams in the comp played a hard grinding game. It was sloppy but overall the better team won, despite being down 3 regular first graders before kick off. The sharks look great in defense but gee they looked flat in attack, seemed like the Cowboys could see them coming from a mile away. Matt Moylan felt like a definite step down from Jimmy Maloney too But, I can’t imagine the sharks having that issue for long under flanno

Val was abysmal but that ball on that occasion went backwards and Taumololo was clearly held up despite him waving his finger. Off the top of my head Sharks had two clear head shots ignored, an invisible knock on on 4th tackle 5 metres out, a phantom off side on Chad on the goal line that gave Cowboys a two point buffer, a contact on the catcher in the air when the winger stayed on the ground while the Cowboy kicked him in the teeth and broke his jaw, and about 5 forward passes from Glanville, another three forward from the immortal JT300, who once even got in the act standing still a metre in front of Glanville when he received the ball. But of course none of the 4 officials even noticed. But all this is irrelevant because the point is not who won the game, which was a barely watchable load of hot garbage from both teams, but rather the outcome of the morality tale which is the prime mover of the mysteriously bizzaro world of the NRL which we are all inhabiting. As I am trying to point out the actual football so far has been so abysmally unwatchable and incompetent (other than the March Premiers heroically managing to catch the ball and run forward with it for nearly one whole half) that all we have left is the dreary narrative that the NRL delivers us., JT300, CamGod. a few dodgy vomit inducing redemption stories, bad boy sagas and revenge tragedies. Without the surrounding desperate narrative the actual football is so bad that the whole edifice of weirdness just collapses. Anyway hopefully some bunch of 13 dumb blokes will emerge from the flaming trainwreck and tear off toward October so we can all at least get excited. Not happening so far though. But there's always next week I guess and JT's 301th.

Thanks Nat you saved me a lot of time .

Worst part of the night was Peter Beattie s appearance. He looked like a hobo.

JT and Scott have had a very long off season so don’t think your logic makes sense.

Mate this is the third place I have seen this exact posting from you. I'm a Sharks fan but we were outplayed last night. Yes JT may have gotten away with a strip but I hardly think that was the only thing that affected the result. Plenty of dropped ball, poor options and penalties from our side kept us under the pump all night. Without an intercept try and a mountain of defence we could have lost by 20. I don't ever go in for these conspiracy theories. The Cowboys won, and fairly, deal with it.

I believe Pete is a purple warrior through and through. Can't say a bad word about the Storm without him jumping all over it.

Top of my head, Holmes knock on - not called. 15m out, probably another try. Held up try - Try. His ball carrying arm was on the ground between his legs. If 20k Cowboys fans chant rude words at that call is it wrong? How can I agree with your JT300 comparison when JT had been on the sideline since July? Last year one of the Sharks tries came from a knock on and if Gal doesn't go the hero play Sharks kick the goal and win. Same again in extra time, Fifita runs sideways and drops it - refs agenda there? Biased Shark fans chanted rude words doesn't make a call wrong. As you said to souvalis, both teams played poorly but you came into the game with a chip on your shoulder looking for anything and found one thing but ignoring the overwhelming facts about the game the Sharks played that gave themselves little chance.

Just bored by the overriding narrative of the NRL that we are privileged to watch the two greatest of all time JT300 and CamSmithGod and that we need to not miss a minute lest we cannot tell the grandkids about the latest miracle in the greatest era in Rugby League history. This is the main self reinforcing narrative(along with a lot of other minor ones) that drive the NRL and Ch 9 marketing depts and keep us turning up (or not) and snoozing in our seats. It is tedious and predictable, even though there is a serious kernel of truth in the whole malarkey. I mean will our whole world fall to pieces when they inevitably both retire at the end of the season? What will we marvel at when JT no longer turns up to deliver his short flat ball, sweep out the back, occasional cut out and inevitable in goal grubber, all to absolute perfection for 7 millionth time? We might actually wake up in our recliners and notice something less predictable and possibly even exciting. No, I doubt it.

Both sides were woeful. If Morgan had have played Sharks would have lost by 50....well probably 30 at least.

From the kick off I had a bad bad feeling...dunno what the whining is about...other than the TMM grub shot on Wade Graham..Sharks deserved to lose..Dugan was a passenger,Moylan still feeling his way around and Val Holmes just should not be at the back...this from a fan..their harshest critic..but still a fan...

Massive sook

Like what?

Come on mate, sharks got away with a lot last night

No I predicted on the preview thread before the game JT's 300th would inevitably be a stitch up in some way. I was absolutely and hilariously vindicated in my prediction. This game, just like the last game between the two sides was decided by a stripping decision in the final minutes in front of the sticks which would have allowed the non dominant team in the game to miraculously to level the scores. Really you cannot make this stuff up.

No it's just an observation that despite the similarities in the two scenarios the decisions made by the ref were ironically exactly the opposite. Why exactly? You seem to be saying that both decisions were made upon the basis that they made sense within the overall flow of the game and delivered the fair and justified outcome. Or in the long run decisions just balance out or something. This is despite that fact that in isolation looking at the two scenarios the decisions make no sense at all. They are in fact contradictory. So in both cases the Cowboys deserved to win? In the semi the Sharks were the dominant team but failed to put NQ away so they didn't deserve to win, while last night the Cowboys were the dominant team and even though they couldn't put the Sharks away still deserved to win. I'm just pointing out, and you seem to be agreeing with my point, that there is another logic or narrative driving refereeing decisions. In other words the ref should deliver somehow the preferred outcome. Whether it is conscious, unconscious, just a result of the overriding narrative that JT300 is immortal and can never do any wrong, or just a self fulfilling prophecy who knows really. But it is nevertheless ridiculous and farcical. I guess that's why you occasionally get 20,000 fans chanting rude words at the ref and coaches getting fined and stuff.

Sook

The Sharks let in 4 tries but couldn't manufacture one for themselves. They received 10 penalties to 6, missed 38 tackles and 15 errors but the game came down the ref favouring JT? It will be a long season if that's the way you view it.